Monsoon Season is Upon Us

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Arizona’s Monsoon Season Begins

This past Saturday was the official start to the Arizona monsoon season. What that means is AZ will begin to see moisture moving into the state from Mexico creating violent thunderstorms with torrential downpours. In a nutshell, good times are ahead.

On Saturday I received a text message from my buddy Bryan Snider asking if I wanted to chase storms down by Tucson. After checking my schedule (and with the wife) I was on my way south to see what Mother Nature had in store for us. Our buddy Larry Reeves joined us as well and was the official navigator for the trip. Bryan drove and I got to sit in the back and admire the weather.

The forecasts were calling for severe weather just east of Tucson near Benson Arizona. After verifying the forecast with the current radar, Bryan set the mighty Prius in motion. Once we made it east of Tucson we hit the first wave of rain, the natural enemy of the storm chasing photographer. We pushed through and found an overpass to pull off where we could get out and possibly shoot some cloud structures.The surrounding storms didn’t hang around long so the pickings were slim on storm clouds. After a getting a few shots and allowing Larry to Instagram a few we made our way further on east towards Benson.

Upon arriving in Benson we were met with more rain. Ugh. Eventually we found a dry area which would be our best location of the day. We saw/heard a few lightning strikes but they quickly faded. One strike did hit pretty close that made Bryan and I jump. It was one of those where you see the strike and immediately hear that crackle sound. Yep, that’s close.

From our vantage point we were able to shoot some rain structures out on the horizon along with a couple of rainbows. I believe Bryan was able to shoot a time lapse of some of the clouds rolling by so be sure to keep an eye on his website for that one. In addition to a few cloud shots I got a few ant bites as well. It’s amazing how painful those red ants can be. Where’s the Raid?!?

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After getting our share of pics we packed up and made our way for home. The clouds were still hanging around so we opted for one more stop at the Saguaro National Park in Tucson. We were hoping to grab some killer sunsets with the giant cacti. Driving through the park we made a couple stops shooting some of the cactus but nothing was really jumping out at us. Larry and I got to work on our “watch for rattlesnakes” technique as we were wandering through desert. Bryan was smarter and stayed closer to the road.

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At the end of the day we all didn’t  quite get what we hoped for but managed a few shots nonetheless. Still it was a great time with friends and our first of many storm chasing trips to come this summer. So stayed tuned for monsoon madness!!!